Abercrombie staff shift can be opportunity

It’s never a trivial matter when a high-ranking official within any governor’s office heads for the exits. Therefore, this week’s staff departures in the administration of Gov. Neil Abercrombie, including his two top advisers, must be read as a seismic shift, one that can have profound effects on the executive branch and the state.

Handled correctly, however, this kind of upheaval could be reconstructive rather than fatal. The question is really whether the governor — less than a year into his first statewide executive position — will learn from the experience, and build on it.

The biggest news came Thursday afternoon with the resignation of Amy Asselbaye, Abercrombie’s chief of staff, and her deputy, Andrew Aoki. The official reason was that they wanted to spend more time with their families — the universally cited cause of innumerable political departures through the years.

Star-Advertiser writer Derrick DePledge tapped various sources, who declined to be named publicly but told him that the reasons went far deeper. There were longtime allies of the governor who feared he didn’t have the people in place to advance his legislative agenda or communicate more broadly with the public, according to those sources.

The unfolding of events over the past 10 months have proven them correct. There were several failings that were counterproductive for his policy goals or left a bitter public-relations aftertaste. A few examples:

» Abercrombie’s proposals for closing the budget deficit included assorted taxes that simply ran aground on the shoals of the state Capitol. This produced friction with legislative leaders who, with more discussion early on, could have been enlisted as supporters.

» He decided to withhold names submitted for consideration as judges and issued an executive declaration of a civil emergency without timely public notice, both actions an unnecessary blow to transparency in government.

» The governor also called for the resignation of state board and commission members appointed by the previous administration so that he could name their successors, seemingly insisting on uncommon (if not unprecedented) unilateral control.

Sometimes he had a case to make — the civil emergency declaration allowed federal funds to be spent on ordnance clearance, money that may have been elusive given time constraints — but the fact that he didn’t make the case until after the fact was distressing.

The governor took over at an undeniably bad time for Hawaii and the nation, when fiscal crisis forced quick, even precipitous action, and some missteps were inevitable. But those mistakes need to be acknowledged, and corrected, if Abercrombie is to deliver to any reasonable degree the "New Day in Hawaii" he promised.

There are a few hopeful signs. Appointing a veteran such as Kate Stanley, now a senior adviser, to run interference on legislative matters, is a good move. More efforts to improve the coordination of, and communication from, the fifth floor of the Capitol should follow quickly.

Early on during the past legislative session, Abercrombie was asked whether he was surprised that some of his initiatives were rebuffed.

"I am the governor," he said. "I’m not your pal."

That may be. The governor needs to make tough, unpopular decisions. But the people of Hawaii have the right to expect their governor to lead not by fiat, but with effective persuasion and clear, transparent action. Whether they are his pals or not.